In the Beginning
by Redmage2
Summary: How the Teen Titans really began: in chaos. Go back to the day the Titans first encountered one another!
1. Arrivals

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, but if I did, I'd keep them in a miniature replica of their former habitat. Except for Robin and Raven. I'd take them out and play with them. 

Summary: How the Teen Titans really began: in chaos. Spoilers and pairings are non-existent.

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Chapter 1:

Arrivals

There was one day in the history of Jump City that stood out to the residents as a day of unprecedented chaos. Sure, the city had suffered through standard petty crimes, several disruptions perpetrated by aliens, mass hypnosis on more than one occasion, hostile takeover by a madmen, several near cataclysms, and, to top it all off, time stopping completely. Although, to be fair, no one knew really knew about that one. Except for a few very puzzled car passengers who suddenly found themselves upside down and halfway across the street in smashed vehicles. And the city officials who appointed the construction crew that eventually had to give up on finding a way to separate two office buildings which were mysteriously forged together and sported with a gaping hole in the middle.

ANYway, Jump City was a town that lived the meaning of the word chaos. But there was one day, more than any other, that in the future, grandparents would relate to shiny-eyed children: the day the Teen Titans formed.

.o.o.o.o.

A very disgruntled teenager with painstakingly gelled black hair slowly drove his motorcycle onto the road at a rather sedate pace. Behind him, the officer in the police car which had just stopped him for going thirty over the speed limit nodded and gave him a friendly wave. The teen glared and gritted his teeth together in a grimace that might generously be called a smile. This was NOT a good beginning in his career as Jump City's newest superhero.

The day had started out well enough. The weather was perfect for the drive from Gotham, and Robin had been cruising along in his costume—no more secret identities for him, he was going to be a hero full time—and coming up with a good speech to use on the police commissioner of Jump City. While Batman had allowed the transfer, Robin had wanted to handle the details himself. He had been so involved in his speech, in fact, that he had been neglecting the road signs...

Twenty minutes later, he had backtracked enough to make the turn for Jump City. Robin had to take a few deep breaths, but he was determined not to let anything ruin his first day as an independent crime fighter.

That was about when he heard the sirens.

The officer who had pulled him over kindly didn't say anything about his costume, but he could tell that the man had never been anywhere NEAR Gotham before. Robin's face burned with the memory of the encounter. The guy probably thought he was some kind of nut job. Of course, that didn't stop the officer from giving Robin a ticket...

And where we he going to come up with the money, anyway? Speeding was expensive, and there was no way in hell he was going to admit to ANYONE why he needed it. Maybe he'd work out a little advance in his salary when he talked to the commissioner.

Robin's face fell. The commissioner! This wasn't going to look good at all.

He firmly restrained himself from speeding up as he finally turned a bend in the road and caught sight of the skyline of Jump City. It's not like he was in a rush to get there anymore. Surely the commissioner would be understanding about the ticket.

Robin's planning flew out of his head as he drew nearer the city and he heard the alarm. Under the tinted visor of the helmet, he smirked. Maybe if he did something brought in a few criminals, he'd get into the commissioners good graces a little easier.

And he wouldn't be mistaken for some crazy kid any more if he had a reason for being in costume.

.o.o.o.o.

Raven gracefully stepped out of the shadowy portal created by the combined energy of her mentors on Azarath. After she had grown into full control of her emotions and her powers, Raven had begun to chafe at the constant supervision of the elders. And who wouldn't? It's not like she needed to be supervised when taking a bath anymore. That was only one time when she was much younger that she had tried to send shadows along the pipes to find out where the water came from. How was a six year old with imperfect control supposed to know that all those pipes were supposed to twist and connect in a certain order? There were still bitter individuals who glared at her for that incident. It wasn't like the maintenance crews hadn't gotten things straightened out within the span of a few months...

Raven brought her thoughts back to the present with a light cough. Since she understood the reasons for her mentors' concern, Raven had bottled her emotions and attempted to suppress her frustration. But her suffering at not gone unnoticed. They had decided, for Raven's well-being, and for their own—no need to actually INVITE a gigantic hell-spawned demon to destroy them—to send Raven away. After careful consideration, they had chosen this planet, the home of her mother, to be _her_ new home as well. Looking around, Raven found that she was not entirely displeased by the location. Of course, she couldn't really _feel_ one way or the other. At least she wouldn't have to worry about hating her surroundings.

Hearing a strange whooshing noise somewhere above her growing progressively louder, Raven thought momentarily about revising her opinion. Seconds before the airborne whatever-it-was crashed into her, Raven unleashed her powers and diverted its course into a nearby building, nearly driven to her knees with the strain. Oops.

With a sigh, Raven realized that she should probably check on the occupants of the building, and on the contents of the flying...thing. If she didn't, her mind would certainly be troubled, which she knew from experience—as did all of the cooking staff near her home on Azarath. Raven paused as she cleared her mind of the memories of the time when she had felt so guilty about taking a snack from the pantries that she had tried to use her powers to help the food cook faster. The experience was valuable in some respects, however. How else would she have known that she never wanted to see what a re-animated Azaranthian version of a chicken acted like?

Raven levitated herself over to the hole in the building where the space debris had entered. In her low, monotone voice, she asked, "Is anyone injured?"

After a few of the nearby workers exchanged glances, one woman was apparently appointed spokesman. She moved forward slightly, hugging her arms across her chest nervously. "There wasn't anyone in that office," she barely finished before Raven moved to the next floor.

Miraculously, there had been only one injury, which Raven had healed. She now stood before the object which had been the cause of her troubles. It hadn't moved. Raven frowned. The crashed object wasn't making this any easier on her. Stepping forward, she placed her hand lightly on the metal—

Only to suffer an incredible loss in dignity as she burned the hell out of her hand. Hissing in pain, Raven waved her hand rapidly up and down in the air in a futile attempt to cool the burned flesh. Only the flush cheeks showed her inner embarrassment with her unthought-out actions. "Stupid...of course it's going to be hot! It just came from space!" she muttered angrily to herself.

Raven took a deep breath to rediscover her emotional center. So much for going away to stay calm. She winced inwardly as one last wave of embarrassment caused a slight outburst of shadow, which slammed into the crashed device.

The object wobbled slightly. A door suddenly flew outward, catching Raven unprepared and slamming her backward into a wall.

"Ow," she muttered dryly as the hot sheet of metal slid off her hastily formed shield and onto the floor. "That _really_ hurt." She closed her eyes to again reclaim her emotions.

Opening her eyes again, she winced. "This is _so_ not my day."

In front of her, floating in the air, was a wide-eyed, innocent-looking girl about her age. The girl was attempting to speak to the petrified employees, but apparently not having any success. As Raven regained her senses, she realized that the lack of success was probably due to the fact that the girl was speaking a language that sounded like she was choking on a handful of pebbles.

Raven debated her options. On the one hand, she could simply phase through the wall and be done with this whole mess. There were plenty of places on this planet that she could go, and if that failed, plenty of other planets she could try. But, on the other hand, Raven couldn't help but feel a small twinge of conscious at the problem that she had had the slightest hand in creating.

Raven's eyebrow began to twitch. This planet was not at all calming. She quietly floated up behind the alien girl and encased her with black energy. Before the girl could begin to struggle, Raven placed her hands at the other's temples and concentrated. Slowly, her levitating form began to lose altitude, and just as she opened her eyes, she fell to the ground. Or she would have, if her fall hadn't been broken by the alien's...grebnaks. Scrambling up quickly in embarrassment, Raven prepared herself to face the onslaught of the now-defensive alien.

"What have you done to me?" the girl demanded angrily as her eyes and hands began glowing an alarming shade of green.

"Listen to yourself," Raven responded calmly.

"You are believing that I am speaking—"

Raven winced at the mangled grammar. Apparently the language transfer hadn't been perfect. She cut the alien off. "Listen to what you are saying. I placed the native language of this part of the planet into your brain so you can communicate."

The alien was shocked into silence. After thinking this over for a moment, she squealed in delight and clapped her hands, not seeing Raven's grimace at her over-exuberance. "How wonderful! Please, what is your name? Will you be my friend?" The girl's eyes practically shone with delight. Wait, scratch that. They _did_ shine.

"My name is Raven," she stated in a subdued voice, hoping her loud new acquaintance would take the hint and speak more quietly.

"Friend Raven, it is a pleasure to be meeting you! My name is Starfire. I have come of recently from the planet of Tameran. You must contain great knowledge of this place. Will you help me in the learning of new customs?" Starfire asked, apparently not noticing Raven's lack of excitement.

"No." Starfire looked crestfallen. As she was about to speak again, Raven felt pangs of conscious kicking in AGAIN, and inwardly cursed the day she had even thought about complaining about her life on Azarath. "I'm not actually from here. In fact, I only arrived right before you did."

Starfire was interrupted in her response by the distant wailing of an alarm. "Please, new friend, do you know what is that noise? It sounds most distressed."

Raven thought for a moment. "It's probably an alarm." Before she realized what had happened, Starfire had grabbed her wrist and yanked her out of the hole in the building.

Raven attempted to pry the alien's fingers from her arm and realized the girl was stronger than she appeared. "Azarath metrion zinthos," she muttered, and shadow covered her wrist, allowing it to slip out of the other girl's grip. "I can fly, too, you know," she stated in annoyance, hovering alongside Starfire. "The question is, why are we flying?"

Starfire looked at Raven in confusion. "An alarm does not mean that someone is in need of assistance?"

"Well, it does, but—"

"We go to help!"

Raven opened her mouth to reason with the alien when she realized that she was partially to blame. She closed her eyes, but opened them immediately as she sensed that she was coming perilously close to the top of a building. Now that she had helped the girl _partially_ understand what was going on, she felt responsible for making sure that partial understanding didn't lead to any more problems. After all, the girl knew her name.

As she followed the cheerful alien, Raven wondered how a simple trip that was supposed to help her find a new, calm life had turned into _this_.

.o.o.o.o.

The half-metal teenager stepped off the bus and took a deep breath. That ride could have gone a lot better. He opened a small compartment in his arm and counted his few remaining bills. "Damn," he murmured. "Almost broke. I can't believe they made me pay for that!"

Cyborg looked around, then raced back toward the bus, which pulled away as he neared it. "Come on, man! Hey! This isn't Seattle!" He growled under his breath. How was he supposed to get a job as Bill Gates' brilliant assistant if he wasn't anywhere NEAR Bill Gates? "That was _so_ not my fault..."

His musings were interrupted by a sullen voice. "Heh, no one listens when I say that, either." Cyborg looked up and blinked to see a green-tinted teenager lounging on the bus station steps.

Bristling a little, he returned the comment. "Yeah, well you've probably never been thrown off a bus because they discovered you had a hidden weapon! I mean, come ON! The guy was trying to rob people with a knife! And I can't help it if I accidentally took out the front part of the roof! And then it rained..." Cyborg trailed off for a moment. "But I fixed the parts that shorted out! I don't see how they get off leaving me here!"

"Oh yeah? Well you've probably never caused a mad panic on a bus when you accidentally turn into a rat when you were asleep. It's not like I meant for that one guy to hurt himself when he jumped out before the bus stopped completely. And I'm STILL hurt from all the high heels women threw at me!" Beast Boy rubbed a particularly sore spot on his arm. "And the only way the bus driver even agreed to take me to here was if I stopped annoying him with my 'lame' jokes. My jokes so aren't lame!"

Cyborg growled at the lack of attention the other teen was giving his problems. "Do you have any idea how many strange looks you get when your body is mostly metal?"

"Do you have any idea how many strange looks you get when your body is GREEN?" the irate changeling yelled back.

They traded glares in a standoff before Cyborg started laughing. For a moment, Beast Boy looked insulted, but he thought about their situation and began laughing along with his companion in misery.

"Man, I think I like you," Cyborg chuckled. "What's your name?"

The green boy flashed him a dazzling grin. "The ladies man is named Beast Boy! You better watch out, or you'll be trampled by my fans, once they get to know me in this city!" He lifted his eyebrows for effect. "So what's your name?"

"I'm Cyborg, for pretty obvious reasons. But I bet you didn't see _this_ coming," Cyborg transformed his arm into the sonic cannon and enjoyed the reaction as his new friend's eyes grew huge.

"Dude! That's totally sweet!" Beast Boy peered at the arm closely, drooling in awe. Cyborg grinned proudly, not noticing Beast Boy reaching for a certain button on his arm's control panel until it was too late. The cannon charged up and fired, taking out a large chunk of the bus station's roof. Cyborg glared down at the other teen. "Heh heh. Oops?"

The station's manager rushed outside, gaping at the damage. Cyborg was about to drag Beast Boy over with him to help him explain what had happened when they both heard a high-pitched alarm. Before he realized it, the changeling was dragging him away from the station with, holding his arm tightly in his...trunk?

When he noticed Cyborg paying more attention, Beast Boy released his companion and turned back into a human. "Dude, I think that's our exit cue!" Cyborg didn't move. Realizing the problem, Beast Boy rolled his eyes. "Beast Boy, remember?"

"Uh, right," Cyborg mentally shook himself out of his daze. "But we need to clear things up with the manager back there!" Cyborg protested. "You are NOT running off and leaving me with the bill."

"Of course not! I'm running off and taking you with me! Besides, someone probably needs the help of a dashing green hero and his metallic sidekick," Beast Boy grinned impishly.

"Sidekick? Oh, I don't THINK so! Cyborg ain't nobody's sidekick!"

The two boys began to race each other down the street toward the alarm, startling more than a few unsuspecting citizens in their fight to reach the scene first. After all, no one had seen a gigantic green tyrannosaurus rex running down the streets of Jump City before.

* * *

And I think we can all figure out where this is going...

:sigh: This was a one-shot when I first thought of it, too. Now, it's going to be a three chapter deal. After this comes the fight, then the aftermath. And for any of you who might be waiting for the aftermath chapter of _The Worst Holiday of Them All_, that's coming, too. I have parts of all three of those chapters written.

As for Raven's history, well, I pretty much made that up, except for the fact that she does say on the show that she comes from Azarath, and I believe in the comics her mother is a human from earth. Can she put a language into someone's brain? Who knows. But it's a pretty fair guess that she could. Oh, and for those who missed "Fear Itself," grebnaks seems to be Tameranian for breasts.


	2. Fighting and Infighting

Disclaimer: I don't own the Teen Titans, but if I did, I'd keep them in a miniature replica of their former habitat. Except for Robin and Raven. I'd take them out and play with them. 

A/N: It's best if I clear this up right away. **This story will not have pairings of any kind.** It will only deal with the first day the Titans formed their team. Sorry if this disappoints people.

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Fighting and Infighting

Beast Boy never knew what hit him. One minute, he was racing his newfound partner-in-crimefighting, Cyborg, from the bus station to a crime scene, and the next minute he was face-first in a brick building.

Somewhere behind him, he heard a voice that somehow managed to be borderline-panic and monotone at the same time. "Starfire! That wasn't the criminal!"

"He was not? But he seemed to be harassing the smaller being of metal," a higher pitched, more innocent sounding voice replied.

Beast Boy groaned and morphed back into his human form, sliding slowly down the wall toward the ground. "Eeek! He attempts to obfuscate us!" cried the higher-pitched voice, and suddenly he felt a blast of almost unbearable heat strike him in the back. Beast Boy blessedly passed out before he could reach the pavement.

Starfire jumped in surprise—while she was flying, no less—and readied more green energy. This time, Raven was prepared. Before Starfire could attack the unconscious green being, from whom she had sensed no evil or criminal intent, Raven encased Starfire's entire body in a black bubble of energy.

"I am going to be so tired by the time this day is finally over," Raven muttered to herself. Still floating, she positioned herself in front of Starfire and raised the volume of her voice. "Look, Starfire, there are going to be many things you don't understand here, but you can't just go attacking people because of that. There was no criminal intent from that boy you just blasted, and for that matter, there wouldn't be store alarms going off because of a loose dinosaur."

Starfire looked confused but repentant. "I am sorry, Raven. Truly the ways of Earthlings are strange. I was unaware they were able to perform such wonders," Starfire looked down at Beast Boy. "But if he is not the criminal, who is?"

Raven had just opened her mouth to suggest interviewing store owners when she was suddenly tied up by a grappling hook and yanked from the sky. Taken by surprise and lassoed, Raven couldn't summon her powers. She fell helplessly, wondering what else could go wrong that day.

"Leave her alone!" her assailant yelled, barely doing anything to cushion Raven's fall.

She glared at him. "Who the hell are you?" Before the brightly colored, mask-wearing teen could answer, Raven took a few breaths to calm her rapidly rising anger.

"That doesn't matter. I just want you to leave that poor girl—aaahh!" Raven watched in surprise as Robin was hit with a blast of blue energy and went flying into the side of another building, causing pedestrians to scramble aside in panic.

"I think YOU need to leave HER alone, pal," shouted Cyborg. "This girl was stopping her trigger-happy friend from attacking my little buddy there!" Cyborg pointed at Beast Boy, who was beginning to moan and regain consciousness.

Keeping a wary eye on Robin, Cyborg walked over to Raven and helped her untangle herself from the grappling hook's rope. "Thanks," she muttered. "It's good to know that I'm not the only sane one in this city."

Cyborg grinned. "Well, maybe you didn't know since I'm new to it. The name's Cyborg."

"I wouldn't recognize your name even if you weren't new. I just got here today." Raven looked wearily at Starfire, who had freed herself from the shadow bubble after Raven was entangled. The alien was now tending to Beast Boy in a fit of guilt for mistakenly having attacked him. "I'm Raven. Starfire practically crashed on me right after I got here."

Cyborg winced in sympathy. "I can see how you musta stopped her though. Those're some pretty impressive powers you have. Me, well, with me, what you see is what you get."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Raven wondered why she was even attempting to reassure this man she had just met. "What about your friend who Starfire blasted?"

"Me and Beast Boy met at the bus station probably twenty minutes ago. Both got dropped off in this town at the same time. You know anything about the caped wonder over there?" Cyborg helped Raven stand, and they both turned to look at the terribly confused Boy Wonder, who was just standing up.

Apparently Robin was having some trouble recovering from the sonic cannon blast he had just been hit by, for he was shaking his head and smacking his right ear with the palm of his hand. "Think he'll knock something loose doing that?" Raven remarked dryly, causing Cyborg to let out a sharp bark of laughter.

"Girl, I don't know if there's anything up there to knock loose," Cyborg shot back, causing her to smirk.

"What the heck is going on here?" Robin yelled in frustration as he observed Cyborg helping Raven and Starfire helping Beast Boy.

"Maybe you should have asked that before you decided to pull me out of the air," Raven glared.

Starfire piped up. "I appreciate your assistance, boy of the mask, but I was not in need of saving. Friend Raven was simply explaining to me that I was wrong in attacking new friend Beast Boy!" She looked apologetically at the changeling, who was now standing with her help, and looking interestedly at the well-endowed skin covered by her tight-fitting outfit.

"Hey, it's cool, Starfire. No _lasting_ harm done," he looked up at her with a grin.

"Will someone PLEASE explain what happened here to me?" Robin was getting impatient.

Before anyone could respond, the teens heard twin crashes from opposite sides of the street. Pieces from the buildings that Robin and Beast Boy had slammed into fell to the ground in concert, leaving gaping holes in the walls they had once been part of. The five guilty parties sweatdropped.

"Um, maybe we should take this somewhere else?" Beast Boy suggested nervously. The group looked around and noticed a few citizens heading for phone booths to call the police. Although the teens didn't realize it yet, these citizens were well-versed in one of Jump City's leading publications, _Your Business Could Be Next: A How-to Guide for Dealing With Madmen, Evil Geniuses and Criminals_. Clearly, these good citizens had placed our, um, heroes, in the "madmen" category and were taking the appropriate steps to handle the situation.

"Good idea," Robin replied. "Wait, I came down here because I heard—"

"A siren!" Suddenly all of the would-be crimefighters remembered their reason for converging.

Beast Boy turned into a dog and cocked an ear. "Dudes, I can still hear it down that way," he said as he morphed back into a human.

"Right, I'm going to check it out," Robin and Cyborg both spoke at once, then glared at each other.

"You stay here, I'LL go!" After they chorused again, they faced off, assuming fighting stances in the middle of the street, the alarm forgotten again.

"But should we not search for the criminal?" Starfire reminded the boys of their reason for clashing.

"You guys were all going toward the alarm?" Robin asked. When he saw three nods of varying enthusiasm and one noncommittal eye-roll, he frowned. "Fine. If we're all going, we might as well join forces, just this once. But after that, I'm going to be protecting this city, so you can all find another place to help."

"Hey, since when is this city your territory?" Cyborg exclaimed.

"Yeah, are you like, official, or something?" Beast Boy demanded.

"There are rules about these things?" Starfire looked terribly confused.

"Whatever," Raven shrugged.

Robin was getting quite upset at the questioning of his authority. "Look, I'm transferring here from Gotham City. I trained under BATMAN. I think that gives me preference here! But for now, let's just GET MOVING! GO!" Some of the group more reluctantly than others, the teenagers followed Robin down the street, beginning a long-standing tradition of ignoring the dismayed and stunned looks of any townspeople who had seen their confrontation.

.o.o.o.o.

"If all of the criminals in town are this stupid, I don't think even one superhero is needed," Raven commented dryly. The bickering group had arrived at the building where the alarm had been set off to discover the thief had long since departed from the jewelry store. However, he had been sidetracked by an electronics store and then a bank on the same street.

The teenagers reached the bank just as the criminal was about to leave. Beast Boy lead the charge—at least until the thief threw open the doors of the bank right into his face.

"OOOWWW! MY NOSE!" he managed to shriek, despite the oddly muffled quality of his voice. Beast Boy retreated to the side for a moment to nurse his injury.

The others prepared their attacks. The criminal had not yet run through the open doorway, mostly due to his shock at seeing the strange assortment of people in his path. As he started to move forward again, Raven encased the thick metal doors in shadow and slammed them shut in his face.

Unfortunately, she did this a fraction of a second after Robin had thrown a pair of birdarangs and an explosive charge, Starfire had released a barrage of starbolts, and Cyborg had fired his sonic cannon.

"Oh, crap," Cyborg groaned as their attacks were all reflected back toward them. He froze as the starbolts deflected over his head at Raven, who quickly threw up a shield of dark energy. Although she blocked all of them, she lost her concentration and was thrown to the ground. Starfire dodged one of the birdarangs and blasted the remaining one and the explosive charge. Robin managed dodged the quickly moving sonic cannon blast, although he forgot to take his surroundings into account as he did so.

As the other three teens recovered, Cyborg and Beast Boy, who was again standing, although breathing heavily through his mouth, turned their attention to the wide-eyed criminal who had taken advantage of Raven's lapse of attention to reopen the doors.

"Freeze!" shouted Cyborg, leveling his sonic cannon at the young man. Beast Boy transformed into a lion and roared at the thief.

Starfire floated over behind the boys. "Desist, evildoer!" she cried, causing them to look at her quickly in surprise. The evildoer in question took advantage of their moment of distraction to shoot a grappling hook around her body. Holding onto the end of the line, he whirled and flung the girl into the side of a building. As she pushed herself off the hard surface, Starfire groaned weakly. "Ow...that is not desisting!"

Growling in anger, Beast Boy and Cyborg mobilized. Cyborg ran straight at the criminal with a wordless cry, while Beast Boy morphed into a pterodactyl and flew overhead. The criminal panicked and did nothing to defend himself.

Robin had regained his equilibrium after crashing into a parking meter when he had dodged the sonic cannon blast. With a nod of approval, he watched the other two boys work together to take on the thief. At this point, he didn't really care WHO apprehended the man, but after causing so much trouble, they had to have SOMETHING to show for it...

He groaned. At this rate, they were going to have to develop telepathy to keep out of each others' way.

Cyborg and Beast Boy had approached the unmoving criminal at the same time. Cyborg swung his arm in a powerful punch—at the same time that Beast Boy landed right in front of him, now in the shape of a ram. Instead of the thief, a green ram was now sent sprawling somewhere in the interior of the bank. From inside, a loud crash was heard.

Robin ran over to help, reaching the doorway at the same time that Beast Boy came running out of the bank. "All right, now just hold your hands up. We have you...surrounded?" Robin trailed off. Instead of helping him surround the criminal, Beast Boy and Cyborg had started a violent argument about who was to blame for the botched attack. "Guys! Come on, help me out here! Guys!"

The thief took advantage of his unbelievable luck and ran out into the street, still carrying the bags of stolen jewelry, electronics, and money.

"This is ridiculous. Azarath metrion ZINTHOS!" The boys stopped fighting and gaped in shock as Raven encased a parked minivan in shadow and dropped it on the thief.

"Raven! You can't do that!" cried Robin.

"Why not?"

"Dude! You probably killed him!" Beast Boy exclaimed.

"Move the car. Now." Robin commanded. Surprised at the stern authority in his voice, Raven complied.

There was no one there.

"He has...unappeared?" Starfire questioned.

"Disappeared. And it looks like he pulled his little trick by going into the sewers," Cyborg answered and pointed at the open manhole.

"We can't let him get away! We've got to—" Robin's declaration was cut off by a hand on his shoulder. He spun around in surprise. "Who are you?" he demanded of the angry looking middle-aged man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"I am Police Commissioner Roberts," the man ground out.

The teenagers' eyes collectively widened. Except for Starfire. "Friend Raven, what is a Police Commissioner Roberts?" The others winced. The commissioner's face began to turn an alarming shade of red.

Robin decided to brave the man's anger. "Um, Commissioner, I know how this looks, but we're just trying to—"

"I don't really care WHAT you're trying to do. Do you have any idea how much damage you five have caused to this city? Compared to that, the thief who just got away from here has only taken pennies!" the commissioner yelled.

Beast Boy opened his mouth to answer the commissioner's rhetorical question, but before he could, the man continued. "You...KIDS...have destroyed seven office buildings, bus station, an apartment complex, done damage to four streets, destroyed a minivan and countless other pieces of personal property...AND wracked up a speeding ticket!"

The teens slowly turned to stare accusingly at Robin.

"WHAT?" he said defensively.

Raven arched an eyebrow. "You're the only one who drove here, Wonder Boy," she commented scathingly.

"It's one ticket! You guys wrecked entire buildings!" Robin exclaimed.

"To be truthful," Starfire raised a finger helpfully, "the destruction of buildings was helped by Robin. Did I speak incorrectly?" the alien asked innocently after becoming the recipient of Robin's glare. Beast Boy giggled madly.

Robin made a firm effort to ignore his unwilling companions. "Look, I, at least, came here to help out the police and to be a hero. I certainly didn't intend to cause any damage, and I'm sure that none of the others did either. We'd love to make it up to you, but the fact is that we're penniless teenagers. We're going to need someplace to stay, in the very least," he spoke sincerely to the commissioner, ignoring the glares of death and muttered comments from the other teens after including them in his statements.

The commissioner seemed unimpressed. "You also need to pay for all of the damage. Saying sorry isn't going to help pay for construction crews."

Robin smiled. "For that, I propose a trade."

* * *

**Sharon**: Ah! Thank you! I've never read more than a random middle volume of the comic which left me terribly confused (And looking like O.o at the character design differences). I'm glad to know how it actually happened. Never mind me as I continue on my merry WRONG way. XD I'm glad you're enjoying this. (Hee hee...a prize! Yay!) 

**Insanity 101**: Oooo! You liked my story! I LOVE your work :happy squeal: I'm glad I was able to give things enough background, and hopefully without taking out a lot of the humor.

**Raven-Fieryblack**: XD I'm glad I was able to give you all a little humor, although I like reading the angsty stuff myself. I just can't write it all that well.

**Dove of Night**: Raven is my favorite, too. It kinda shows, I think, and it almost makes me feel bad...but then again, it is my story, lol. I'm glad I'm doing her justice!

To all of my wonderful reviewers in general: THANK YOU! Again you are absolutely thrilling and amazing me with your support and enjoyment of my story! I'm glad I'm doing something right here. XD

One chapter left, minna-san! It is to be understood that Robin proposed an arrangment with the commissioner that will allow the five teenagers to work together to pay off their debts and live in city-provided accomodations. Although we don't see the conversation, let it be known that apparently Robin learned mad impressive communication skillz from his mentor...


End file.
